The invention relates to an automobile roof with a roof aperture which can be closed by a panel that is slidably displaceable and/or capable of being swung upwardly out of the plane of the aperture by means of a crank handle mechanism or a motorized drive mechanism, and with a roof headliner covering the underside of the roof and consisting of a rigid, resilient material, this headliner comprising a cutout corresponding essentially to the roof aperture.
Headliners of a rigid, springy material, i.e. so-called prefabricated headliners (German Utility Model 7,709,851) exhibit an advantage over previously customary fabric headliners in that they can be installed at considerably reduced expense.
On the other hand, crank handle mechanisms for sliding roofs have been known (DAS[German Published Application]1,219,342) exhibiting a crank arm arranged on a rotatable hub and foldable into a dish-like hiding niche. The hub and the crank arm are seated in a handle plate arranged concentrically to the crank axle in a perforation of a sheet-metal wall covered with headliner fabric. Apart from the fact that the fabric headliner can be mounted only with relatively great expense, this solution requires an additional handle plate. Besides, it has heretofore been necessary to provide headliners for use in connection with closure panels with a hand crank mechanism that are constructed differently from those for use with closure panels having a motor drive mechanism.
The present invention is based on the object of providing an automobile roof requiring especially few individual parts, wherein assembly is furthermore simplified, and permitting the use of the same headliner independently of whether the closure panel is equipped with a crank handle mechanism or a motor drive mechanism.
This object has been attained according to a preferred embodiment of the invention in that the roof headliner, consisting of a rigid, resilient material, is equipped in the zone lying in front of the front edge of the headliner cutout with a substantially circular perforation into which fits a round anchor plate for a foldable crank arm constituting part of a crank handle mechanism, this crank arm being received in the folded position by a hiding niche formed by the round anchor plate; and in that the perforation can be covered by a shield in case a motor drive mechanism is utilized.
In such a construction, the conventional handle plate is dispensed with. It is merely necessary to insert the headliner consisting of a rigid material. In the zone of the perforation of the headliner, it is then only required to attach the round anchor plate with crank arm to the crank axle of the crank handle mechanism, if such a crank handle mechanism is provided for the closure panel. The same prefabricated headliner can also be employed if a motorized drive mechanism is to be provided for the closure panel instead of a crank handle mechanism. In such a case, the perforation is simply covered by means of the shield.
The perforation rim is suitably formed by a preferably conically extending rabbet projecting in the direction toward the underside of the roof. Thus, with the round anchor plate attached, an extensively smooth roof underside can be realized.
The round anchor plate can advantageously comprise a hub, the outer diameter of which is smaller than the diameter of the perforation, and a radially projecting flange section lying underneath the perforation, the outer diameter of this flange section being larger than the diameter of the perforation. Thereby the perforation is covered by the flange of the round anchor plate.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.